Hundreds of community residents, elected officials and community leaders came out last Saturday for the community swearing in of newly elected Assembly Member Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer.Jones-Sawyer who was elected in November 2012 and sworn in on January 2 as the representative for the 59th Assembly District hosted the event to allow his supporters, family and friends who were unable to fly up to Sacramento for the official ceremony to take part in the celebration.

The event was a gathering of family and friends and the brief program was filled with some of Jones-Sawyers biggest supporters who all delighted in his ascension from Secretary of the California Democratic Party to a member of the 2013 Freshman Class of the Assembly.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas was on hand to congratulate his longtime friend as well as former Assembly Speaker and current City Council President Herb Wesson who also had the honor of conducting the swearing in ceremony.Senator Kevin DeLeon served as the Master of Ceremony for the event

Jones-Sawyer’s youngest Son Evan, performed the pledge of allegiance to the hundreds of on lookers while his daughter Lauren a graduate student at Hampton University and his oldest son Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Jr. a senior at Morehouse College provided the welcome and introduction for their father.

Pastor Rosalynn Brookins of Walker Temple AME gave the invocation as well as Pastor Edguardo Soto who performed the invocation for the large crowd of Spanish speaking constituents who also attended the event.

Jones-Sawyer thanked everyone for their attendance, support and votes to elect him into the newly formed 59th Assembly seat.He credited his mother and the elder members of his family for teaching him the importance of giving back to the community, fighting for what you believe in as he told the story of his uncle who was one of the “Little Rock Nine” who first integrated Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.

Jones-Sawyer was sworn in using his family’s bible which he stated “this bible got me through all of the elections in which I did not win, got me through this election as I stand here victorious, being sworn in today, and I am sure this bible will get me through many of the difficult days to come both here and in Sacramento as I do the work of the people of the State of California”.

Also on hand to celebrate Jones-Sawyer’s swearing in ceremony were City Council member and mayoral candidate Jan Perry, city controller and mayoral candidate Wendy Gruel, Assembly Member Steve Bradford, State Senator Roderick Wright, State Senator Kevin DeLeon, Legislative Field Representative Heather Hutt for Assembly Member Isadore Hall as well as a number of Jones-Sawyers Freshman Assembly colleagues.There was a number of community organization representatives including Charisse Bremond-Weaver of the Brotherhood Crusade, Marquise Harris-Dawson of Community Coalition, Eric Lee of BCCLA, and a host of supporters and members from New Frontier Democratic Club, Ron Brown Democratic Club and Stonewall Democratic Club all who endorsed and strongly supported Jones-Sawyer in his bid to win the seat.

Jones-Sawyer was escorted into the room with a standing ovation by the members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity of which Jones-Sawyer is a life member.